MARGAO: Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai has dismissed five cases referred to him by the state Lokayukta “on technical grounds”. The cases — pertaining to corruption, failure to deliver services, etc — were pending in the governor’s office for three years, and the referral was under provisions of the Goa Lokayukta Act.
Pillai revealed the dismissal while speaking at a programme held to mark National Voters’ Day at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, on Tuesday. He said that while the Act provided for the Lokayukta’s report on cases involving public functionaries to be sent to the governor, the statute was silent on how the governor should proceed under the Act.
Stressing on the need to address this “lacuna” in the system dealing with anti-corruption and other cases involving persons holding public offices, Pillai called upon political parties to ponder over the issue as, he said, “no government will come and think about all these things”.
“I found out that as per the Act, (once a case is referred to the governor) no further steps are stipulated,” he said.
“I am aware of the fact that the Supreme Court, in one of its important judgements, stated that if it’s not stated in clear terms (in the Act), the governor has no authority to do (anything). So, five such appeals referred to the governor by our system have been dismissed on technical grounds recently,” he said.
The state government has so far failed to act on any of the cases recommended to it for taking action by the Goa Lokayukta.
Pillai said that besides the five Lokayukta cases disposed of by him, several cases referred to him by the state government as well as Goa university, that were pending for long, were cleared. “All the files were cleared before the election notification was issued,” he said.
Lauding the office of the state’s chief electoral officer for the steps taken to make the upcoming elections “inclusive and participative,” Pillai said, “The fact that the Election Commission of India is laying so much emphasis on voter education even today indicates that we still have a long way to go in achieving 100% voter literacy”.
Speaking further, Pillai pointed out that since 1952, no ruling party has won the elections polling over 50% of the total votes. The reason why, he said, it is all the more significant for the ‘right to differ’ to be honoured more strictly in our political system.
“Even with a huge majority, ruling parties have fallen below the halfway mark (percentage of total votes polled). This can be interpreted to mean that the electorate in our country has given the opposition an equally important role to play in our rival-oriented political system,” Pillai said.
Pillai revealed the dismissal while speaking at a programme held to mark National Voters’ Day at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, on Tuesday. He said that while the Act provided for the Lokayukta’s report on cases involving public functionaries to be sent to the governor, the statute was silent on how the governor should proceed under the Act.
Stressing on the need to address this “lacuna” in the system dealing with anti-corruption and other cases involving persons holding public offices, Pillai called upon political parties to ponder over the issue as, he said, “no government will come and think about all these things”.
“I found out that as per the Act, (once a case is referred to the governor) no further steps are stipulated,” he said.
“I am aware of the fact that the Supreme Court, in one of its important judgements, stated that if it’s not stated in clear terms (in the Act), the governor has no authority to do (anything). So, five such appeals referred to the governor by our system have been dismissed on technical grounds recently,” he said.
The state government has so far failed to act on any of the cases recommended to it for taking action by the Goa Lokayukta.
Pillai said that besides the five Lokayukta cases disposed of by him, several cases referred to him by the state government as well as Goa university, that were pending for long, were cleared. “All the files were cleared before the election notification was issued,” he said.
Lauding the office of the state’s chief electoral officer for the steps taken to make the upcoming elections “inclusive and participative,” Pillai said, “The fact that the Election Commission of India is laying so much emphasis on voter education even today indicates that we still have a long way to go in achieving 100% voter literacy”.
Speaking further, Pillai pointed out that since 1952, no ruling party has won the elections polling over 50% of the total votes. The reason why, he said, it is all the more significant for the ‘right to differ’ to be honoured more strictly in our political system.
“Even with a huge majority, ruling parties have fallen below the halfway mark (percentage of total votes polled). This can be interpreted to mean that the electorate in our country has given the opposition an equally important role to play in our rival-oriented political system,” Pillai said.
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